Over the weekend Syria shot down a Turkish military jet clearly inside Syrian Territory. Turkey was clearly in the wrong. This military jet may have been downed by a Russian Pantsyr-1 missile and may have the Russian instructors using it. Turkey is now planning on getting NATO involved. It was a reconnaissance aircraft and all NATO partners are involved with arming the rebels. Hillary Clinton, a confirmed traitor after supporting the U.N. Small Arms Treaty; said the attack was “brazen and unacceptable”. The U.S., a NATO partner, is heavily involved with arming the Syrian rebels through the CIA. Also, let’s not forget the part George Soros is playing by supporting the rebels either.

Who’s in charge of the CIA these days? Leon Panetta, who has made plenty of enemies in Pakistan. How can Hillary Clinton make comments about Syria protecting its own air space, when the U.S. keeps killing, mainly innocent civilians inside Pakistan, using drones?

In the world of Zionism, Netanyahu is planning on attacking Iran before the November Elections; it’s to help get Romney in the White House.Don’t think Iran doesn’t know a war is coming. It’s prepared to either defend Syria , or protect itself. They are busy bragging about their capability to hit mobile targets with ballistic missiles. They have already shown their technology by bring down U.S. drones by electronically intercepting signals, thus landing the drones.

On the Home front, OSHA is targeting shooting ranges on a variety of infractions to include hearing protection, cleaning fluids and picking up a dropped loaded cartridge. In total they want an indoor target range, called Illinois Gun Works, to pay $111,000 dollars in fines. Nearly half of the violations involved lead contamination. For the EPA and OSHA, lead is the back-door to ending our Creator endowed rights to keep and bear arms. Lead is a naturally occurring element in the Earth. Would the EPA and OSHA be happy if we mined all the lead in the world and used a rocket to shoot it off into space? Probably not, that would contaminate space. How about using a relatively inert metal, a bullet with a tungsten core and a copper jacket? The government wouldn’t like that either, as it would be armor piercing.

Time to continue on the survival theme . . . .

Making Soap

Well, that’s how a geek makes soap. But how did the pioneers that settled this country make soap? When the SHTF how will you make soap without all the fancy mixers and without commercial lye? I’ve given you some plants at Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants that will make soap. But if the plants aren’t available let’s turn to The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

You can make lye using wood ashes. Hard woods such as oak, walnut, or fruit wood will make a better lye than soft woods like pine. To make lye you will need a wooden barrel with a drain hole in the side at the bottom. You may first want to obtain a cork that will fit the hole, as you will need it. Line the wooden barrel (bottom to top) with rocks or bricks, then a generous layer of straw. The rocks, bricks, and straw should fill the bottom third of the barrel, then put in the ashes. It is alright to let it sit while you are slowly filling the barrel with ashes over a length of time. When you are ready to make soap you add soft water to the ashes. As soon as a trickle water appears at the hole, fill it with the plug. As the layers settle you can add more ashes and water. Let the barrel sit for 3 days with the mixture inside. On the third day, using a glass or ceramic container, pull the plug and let it drain.

Testing the Lye Solution

Drop an egg or a potato into the solution to test it. They should float with about a quarter sized portion sitting above the solution. If they don’t float you either need to boil the solution down to where they do float, or make a stronger solution with more ashes and using the barrel again. I say potato because sometimes eggs float, especially if they are store bought and not fresh. The ‘geek’ is right showing you heating the lye in glass. You can’t use a metal container to heat lye in, use glass, porcelain coated metal or ceramic pot. You also have to use wooden spoons to stir the soap with.

Fats For Soap

Since soaps and candles both use tallow. Pioneer families would make them at the same time. The grease from the fat needs to be pure, clean, and fresh (or frozen) to obtain a soap that has a pleasant odor. Drippings make an inferior soap, but can be used. “Toilet soap” was soap that was made from fat from the butcher; it is a whiter, better quality soap. Saddle soap meant a soap made from mutton with partial use of beef tallow. Six pounds of fat and 1 can of lye will make 9lbs of soap. Mutton or goat tallow is the hardest of all animal fats and has the highest melting temperature. When used alone, mutton and goat fat makes a hard dry soap unless you add extra water or combine them with lard, goose fat, or chicken fat. Beef tallow makes the next hardest soap. One pound of untrimmed beef fat will give 1 cup of tallow. Pig fat (lard) makes good soap, though a bit soft, giving you 2 cups of fat for every 1lb. Chicken and poultry fat is too soft for soap unless combined with other fats. Tallow alone produces a hard soap with out much lather. Vegetable fat, even salad oil can be used, but not mineral oil. Adding vegetable oil improves the texture of the soap. The best vegetable oil is coconut oil, which produces a soap with lots of lather (a shaving soap). Soap made from vegetable oils needs to dry longer and requires less water. Cotton seed oil is also good while olive oil is a better choice.

Storing Fats and Rendering Fat

Store your fat in a cool dry place while you accumulate enough to make soap. Save your fats each day. When you boil meats, cool the pot of liquid and remove the fat. Then take the accumulated fat and heat it to remove water, if you don’t remove the water it will spoil the fat. As you accumulate the fat you can freeze it, but in a cool dry place it should keep for several weeks. When you have stored enough to make soap do it immediately, so as not to let the fat go rancid. Soap improves with age, fat doesn’t. When you are sure you have stored enough fat, melt it in a pot and then strain it through cheese cloth or some other light cotton material.Render all surplus fat from butchering or from fatty trimmings. Grind or cut very small the fat pieces. Then place them in a pot or large skillet add 1 quart of water for each 10lbs of fat. Use a moderate temperature and stir the pot occasionally. When the fats are liquid and the solids are brown and settling to the bottom, carefully strain the fat. You might want to go through this procedure more than once, as the whiter the fat is, the cleaner soap it will make without a bad odor.

Clarifying The Drippings and Removing Salt

Put left over cooking grease into a kettle with an equal amount of water. Use a pot large enough that it will not boil over. Bring the mix to a boil and add 1 quart of water for every gallon of drippings. Stir and break up the lumps. When the water boils, let it sit and settle out any solids in the drippings. Cool and skim the fat from the surface. Don’t use strong smelling grease for this and you can repeat the steps under ‘rendering fat’ until you are satisfied that the drippings are both white and free from smell. You can also add lemon juice or vinegar equal to about half of the water before boiling them. To remove rancidity: Boil the sour or rancid fat with a mixture of 5 parts water to 1 part vinegar. Cool and skim the fat or refrigerate and remove the fat layer. After removing the fat then boil it once again with 1 quart of water for gallon of fat. Repeat as necessary.